Saturday, November 19, 2011

She believes official pronouncements -- despite their changeability. The first thing my son learned to say was his McDonald's order and he had negligible health problems and is now a perfectly fit and healthy young man

SOME popular kids' fast food has almost triple the recommended levels of saturated fat and twice the salt. The findings prompted The Biggest Loser trainer Michelle Bridges to liken parents who fed their children excessive fast food to child abusers.

The Herald Sun can reveal that the worse fast-food companies are McDonald's and Hungry Jack's. Some of their children's meals are more than 1000 kilojoules above levels recommended for children to eat in one sitting. Some of their meals have more saturated fat and salt in one serve than children aged four and eight are supposed to eat in an entire day.

The NSW Cancer Council assessed the nutritional composition of 199 children's meals from six fast-food chains: Chicken Treat, Hungry Jack's, KFC, McDonald's, Oporto and Red Rooster. It found the younger the child, the greater the difference between recommended and actual levels. For example, for four-year-olds, the average meal from McDonald's and Hungry Jack's had three times the recommended saturated fat.

All chains except McDonald's had meals with too much sugar, and all chains had meals with almost double the recommended salt levels. Healthier options were meals with water, milk or juice, small amounts of chicken nuggets or wraps.

One in four Australian children and 43 per cent of teenagers eat fast food at least once a week.

Ms Bridges said she was "not anti-fast food" but condemned parents who regularly fed children junk. "When you look at the low nutritional value of what some parents feed kids regularly, it's like child abuse," Ms Bridges said. "It's highly addictive and changes a kid's tastebuds, so that's what they crave instead of healthy food. "Some parents and their kids get takeaway every night - they don't even need to read the drive-through menu, they know it by heart."

Cancer Council nutritionist Kathy Chapman said the solution was not to criticise parents, but promote fruit, vegetables and salad in such meals. "There also needs to be easy nutrition information at the point of sale and traffic-light labels to make decision-making easier," Ms Chapman said.

A spokeswoman for McDonald's said parents, "often swap in healthier options to suit their children - over a third of every Happy Meal sold includes a healthier choice".

Crime and Misconduct Commission seeks answers in University of Queensland enrolment scandal

THE Crime and Misconduct Commission has demanded the University of Queensland provide extra information about the nepotism scandal which ended the careers of its two top academics.

The order came as Bond University vice-chancellor Robert Stable broke ranks and said UQ must come clean because of the damage being done to other universities.

"For the credibility of all universities, we deserve to have the facts," Professor Stable said. "The University of Queensland cannot continue to put a cloud over the whole system."

Prof Stable, a UQ medical graduate and former president of the university's medical society, called for the report by barrister Tim Carmody, SC, to be made public. He said students needed to be confident enrolments were treated fairly and transparently.

He praised the courage of Bill De Maria, an ethics lecturer, who said in an article in The Courier-Mail that a climate of fear on the campus prevented other academics from speaking out.

The CMC would not reveal its new lines of inquiry. "At this point it is not appropriate to go into the detail of what we are seeking from the university," a spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman said the CMC was still investigating a separate allegation arising out of the unorthodox entry into the dentistry school of the husband of a senior academic in another faculty.

Vice-chancellor Paul Greenfield and his deputy Michael Keniger have been allowed to stay on despite an independent investigation implicating them in the enrolment of "a close family member" who did not qualify for the course.

Meanwhile, UQ has gone into damage control. The chancellor, the vice-chancellor and the executive director are not answering questions.

"The university is rudderless," said a staff member who asked not to be identified.

The CMC warned public sector agencies they were obliged to forward all complaints of suspected official misconduct to it.

Premier Anna Bligh refused to say whether she was given a copy of Mr Carmody's report. And she would not answer questions. "I understand the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency is looking into this matter and I have confidence in the ability of that body to determine whether any further action needs to be taken," she said in a prepared statement.

THE conservative commentator Andrew Bolt considered stepping back from his media commitments after being found guilty of racial vilification in the Federal Court, until Tony Abbott implored him not to.

In an interview with Good Weekend published today, Bolt reveals that the court decision - and the gloating reaction from some sections of the community - had shocked him deeply.

He said he'd been painted as a monster and his family had suffered. However an impromptu visit to his home by the Opposition Leader, who told Bolt the country needed him, had restored his resolve. "[He] made me realise it's not just about me," Bolt says. "There are others to think about."

Mr Abbott dined with Bolt and his wife a week after the judgment in September, the same day a right-wing think tank run by Bolt's friend John Roskam published advertisements in "support of free speech for Andrew Bolt and every Australian".

Before the judgment, Bolt had told Good Weekend he planned to give up one of his media gigs in 2012, most likely his TV show, The Bolt Report, which had been rating poorly. But a fortnight later, he said the verdict had made it impossible for him to retreat.

"I can't now [give up the TV show]," he says. "My enemies would think they have won."

The Bolt brand has taken several knocks in recent months. The future of his radio station, Melbourne Talk Radio, is hanging by a thread while support for Bolt within News Ltd also appears on the wane.

Last month, David Penberthy, a former editor of Sydney's Daily Telegraph and still in News's employ, ridiculed Bolt for playing the "free speech" victim. "His columns make me laugh in disbelief or fold up the paper in anger," he wrote. "I am sick of seeing Bolt being held up as if he were a company spokesman."

In late August, Bolt considered resigning after News's chief executive, John Hartigan, intervened in the raising of old allegations about the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. Two of Bolt's blog posts were deleted and Bolt claimed freedom of speech was at stake.

Paul Kelly’s book The End of Certainty gives the seminal account of the reforms of the 1980s that helped dismantle the so-called ‘Australian Settlement’ – the White Australia policy, industry protection, wage arbitration, state paternalism, and imperial benevolence.

The conventional wisdom in political circles is that the Hawke government, with the bipartisan support of the Liberal Party, fundamentally revamped some of the key institutions that had shaped national development since 1901. The popularity of this view is a tribute to the influence of Kelly’s tome. But is it entirely correct?

Australian banking was deregulated in the 1980s and the economy was internationalised as tariff walls came down. The effects of the switch in the late-1960s to a non-discriminatory immigration policy paved the way for the emergence of a diverse, multi-ethnic society.

Under Prime Minister Keating in the early 1990s, the Labor Party also began liberalising the labour market. The reorientation of foreign policy away from Britain and towards the United States and other Asia-Pacific countries also occurred under Hawke and Keating.

But conspicuously absent from this catalogue of change is state paternalism, or the principle of promoting ‘individual happiness through government intervention.’

Yet state paternalism is perhaps the most crucial element of the Australian settlement because it set the basic political and economic expectations that determined the role of the state.

At its heart was the ‘free lunch’ mentality, whereby government was held to be a vast public utility whose job was to produce the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people. It also embodied a fundamental immaturity in the national psyche: a yearning to be molly-coddled and have basic needs provided for.

Today, the same paternalistic mentality continues to animate Australian life.

Most Australians still want government to regulate minimum wages and employment conditions. They also want government-provided health care and education. They even want the government to chip in for the deposit on their first home, and for income tax to be progressively redistributed as generous family benefits to assist with the raising of their own children. All this has huge implications for the size of government and individual freedom.

Clearly, this is the weak spot in the ‘End of Certainty’ thesis. What is dead cert is that state paternalism lives on in contemporary Australia.

The allegations referenced against Gillard are not "old" as the article says, because they remain unsatisfactorily answered. The fact that there is something eminently blackmailable in her recent-enough past goes some way to explaining her almost bizarre disregard for the opinions and well-being of the people of Australia. Its been said that only people with a suitable narcissism and a dirty secret are ever allowed to rise to the top.

Are you watching the Nursing Home fire story? I think we have the classic screaming Queen who wanted everyone to think he was the hero of the day. These people exist, usually male, sexual preference optional (but if Gay, noisy and exhibitional) but need for adulation mandatory either way. I recall one in the US who would poison patients with Potassium so he could be the first on the scene and call the arrest.

It would be good to know if this guy was a Registered or Enrolled Nurse, or a Personal Care Attendant, and if he floated from job to job. 35-ish, male and working in a Nursing home does not usually signify a stellar career trajectory.

Background

Postings from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former member of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society, former anarcho-capitalist and former member of the British Conservative party.

Most academics are lockstep Leftists so readers do sometimes doubt that I have the qualifications mentioned above. Photocopies of my academic and military certificates are however all viewable here

For overseas readers: The "ALP" is the Australian Labor Party -- Australia's major Leftist party. The "Liberal" party is Australia's major conservative political party.

In most Australian States there are two conservative political parties, the city-based Liberal party and the rural-based National party. But in Queensland those two parties are amalgamated as the LNP.

Again for overseas readers: Like the USA, Germany and India, Australia has State governments as well as the Federal government. So it may be useful to know the usual abbreviations for the Australian States: QLD (Queensland), NSW (New South Wales), WA (Western Australia), VIC (Victoria), TAS (Tasmania), SA (South Australia).

For American readers: A "pensioner" is a retired person living on Social Security

"Digger" is an honorific term for an Australian soldier

Another lesson in Australian: When an Australian calls someone a "big-noter", he is saying that the person is a chronic and rather pathetic seeker of admiration -- as in someone who often pulls out "big notes" (e.g. $100.00 bills) to pay for things, thus endeavouring to create the impression that he is rich. The term describes the mentality rather than the actual behavior with money and it aptly describes many Leftists. When they purport to show "compassion" by advocating things that cost themselves nothing (e.g. advocating more taxes on "the rich" to help "the poor"), an Australian might say that the Leftist is "big-noting himself". There is an example of the usage here. The term conveys contempt. There is a wise description of Australians generally here

Another bit of Australian: Any bad writing or messy anything was once often described as being "like a pakapoo ticket". In origin this phrase refers to a ticket written with Chinese characters - and thus inscrutably confusing to Western eyes. These tickets were part of a Chinese gambling game called "pakapoo".

Two of my ancestors were convicts so my family has been in Australia for a long time. As well as that, all four of my grandparents were born in the State where I was born and still live: Queensland. And I am even a member of the world's second-most condemned minority: WASPs (the most condemned is of course the Jews -- which may be why I tend to like Jews). So I think I am as Australian as you can get. I certainly feel that way. I like all things that are iconically Australian: meat pies, Vegemite, Henry Lawson etc. I particularly pride myself on my familiarity with the great Australian slanguage. I draw the line at Iced Vo-Vos and betting on the neddies, however. So if I cannot comment insightfully on Australian affairs, who could?

My son Joe

On all my blogs, I express my view of what is important primarily by the readings that I select for posting. I do however on occasions add personal comments in italicized form at the beginning of an article.

I am rather pleased to report that I am a lifelong conservative. Out of intellectual curiosity, I did in my youth join organizations from right across the political spectrum so I am certainly not closed-minded and am very familiar with the full spectrum of political thinking. Nonetheless, I did not have to undergo the lurch from Left to Right that so many people undergo. At age 13 I used my pocket-money to subscribe to the "Reader's Digest" -- the main conservative organ available in small town Australia of the 1950s. I have learnt much since but am pleased and amused to note that history has since confirmed most of what I thought at that early age.

I imagine that the the RD is still sending mailouts to my 1950s address!

I am an army man. Although my service in the Australian army was chiefly noted for its un-notability, I DID join voluntarily in the Vietnam era, I DID reach the rank of Sergeant, and I DID volunteer for a posting in Vietnam. So I think I may be forgiven for saying something that most army men think but which most don't say because they think it is too obvious: The profession of arms is the noblest profession of all because it is the only profession where you offer to lay down your life in performing your duties. Our men fought so that people could say and think what they like but I myself always treat military men with great respect -- respect which in my view is simply their due.

The kneejerk response of the Green/Left to people who challenge them is to say that the challenger is in the pay of "Big Oil", "Big Business", "Big Pharma", "Exxon-Mobil", "The Pioneer Fund" or some other entity that they see, in their childish way, as a boogeyman. So I think it might be useful for me to point out that I have NEVER received one cent from anybody by way of support for what I write. As a retired person, I live entirely on my own investments. I do not work for anybody and I am not beholden to anybody. And I have NO investments in oil companies or mining companies

Although I have been an atheist for all my adult life, I have no hesitation in saying that the single book which has influenced me most is the New Testament. And my Scripture blog will show that I know whereof I speak.

The Rt. Rev. Phil Case (Moderator of the Presbyterian church in Queensland) is a Pharisee, a hypocrite, an abomination and a "whited sepulchre".

English-born Australian novellist, Patrick White was a great favourite in literary circles. He even won a Nobel prize. But I and many others I have spoken to find his novels very turgid and boring. Despite my interest in history, I could only get through about a third of his historical novel Voss before I gave up. So why has he been so popular in literary circles? Easy. He was a miserable old Leftist coot, and, incidentally, a homosexual. And literary people are mostly Leftists with similar levels of anger and alienation from mainstream society. They enjoy his jaundiced outlook, his dissatisfaction, rage and anger.

Would you believe that there once was a politician whose nickname was "Honest"? "Honest" Frank Nicklin M.M. was a war hero, a banana farmer and later the conservative Premier of my home State of Queensland in the '60s. He was even popular with the bureaucracy and gave the State a remarkably tranquil 10 years during his time in office. Sad that there are so few like him.

Revered Labour Party leader Gough Whitlam was a very erudite man so he cannot have been unaware of the similarities of his famous phrase “the Party, the platform, the people” with an earlier slogan: "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuehrer". It's basically the same slogan in reverse order.

Australia's original inhabitants were a race of pygmies, some of whom survived into modern times in the mountainous regions of the Atherton tableland in far North Queensland. See also here. Below is a picture of one of them taken in 2007, when she was 105 years old and 3'7" tall

Julia Gillard, a failed feminist flop. She was given the job of Prime Minister of Australia but her feminist preaching was so unpopular that she was booted out of the job by her own Leftist party. Her signature "achievements" were the carbon tax and the mining tax, both of which were repealed by the next government.

The "White Australia Policy: "The Immigration Restriction Act was not about white supremacy, racism, or the belief that whites were higher up the evolutionary tree than the coloured races. Rather, it was designed to STOP the racist exploitation of non-whites (all of whom would have been illiterate peasants practicing religions and cultures anathema to progressive democracy) being conscripted into a life of semi-slavery in a coolie-worked plantation economy for the benefit of the absolute monarchs, hereditary aristocracy and the super-wealthy companies and share-holders of the northern hemisphere.

A great little kid

In November 2007, a four-year-old boy was found playing in a croc-infested Territory creek after sneaking off pig hunting alone with four dogs and a puppy. The toddler was found five-and-a-half hours after he set off from his parents' house playing in a creek with the puppy. Amazingly, Daniel Woditj also swam two creeks known to be inhabited by crocs during his adventurous romp. Mr Knight said that after walking for several kilometres, Daniel came to a creek and swam across it. Four of his dogs "bailed up" at the creek but the youngster continued on undaunted with his puppy to a second creek. Mr Knight said Daniel swam the second croc-infested creek and walked on for several more kilometres. "Captain is a hard bushman and Daniel is following in his footsteps. They breed them tough out bush."

A great Australian: His eminence George Pell. Pictured in devout company before his elevation to Rome

There are also two blogspot blogs which record what I think are my main recent articles here and here. Similar content can be more conveniently accessed via my subject-indexed list of short articles here or here (I rarely write long articles these days)

NOTE: The archives provided by blogspot below are rather inconvenient. They break each month up into small bits. If you want to scan whole months at a time, the backup archives will suit better. See here or here